


Suffer the Child to Come Unto Me

by Natasja



Series: Muffinlance spin-off gift-fics [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bending, Gen, Inspired by Salvage - MuffinLance, Not really nice to the Northern Tribe here, Politics, but honestly they deserve it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29095707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasja/pseuds/Natasja
Summary: When Katara fights for her right to learn, there is no necklace to change Pakku's mind.Opposition has never stopped her before, and Kanna's Grand-daughter is no more inclined to do as she's told than her grandmother was...
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Katara & Pakku (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar)
Series: Muffinlance spin-off gift-fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589467
Comments: 56
Kudos: 431





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Salvage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116591) by [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/pseuds/MuffinLance). 



> There was a Tumblr Ask about a recent Salvage Chapter, and MuffinLance suggested that someone write Katara in the Northern Tribe.  
> I hope it's up to scratch, I'm procrastinating unpacking a LOT of moving boxes right now...

There were no other benders in the Southern Water Tribe.

Katara had always known that she would have to teach herself, every scrap of knowledge a battle of self-discovery. Sure, Dad and Gran-Gran had made noises about travelling and finding a teacher… but then Mom died, and Dad left, and Katara was needed, and could only practice during the long hours of Sokka ‘fishing’ or on the isolated tundras where no-one would see.

Katara had expected the Northern Water Tribe to be different.

The Northern Tribe had never suffered decades of Fire Nation raids, never had pirates lurking to swoop in while they were vulnerable in the wake of those raids and take advantage of a population too injured or grieving to resist them. They’d never had to fear being a bender, or being discovered as one. The Northern Tribe never had to deal with Earth Kingdom merchants who knew how dire their situation was, and inflated their prices accordingly.

No, they’d just isolated themselves, and been left alone because the Fire Nation knew they wouldn’t venture outside their icy walls.

Not even to help their sister Tribe.

A dark part of Katara wondered if the Fire Nation had waited until the North isolated themselves before they attacked the South, or if they left the North alone when they saw the North refuse to answer the call for help. Katara wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, or if she would be able to hear it without dropping to her knees and begging La’s help to create a Tsunami to wipe out at least one country.

* * *

The Water Tribes worshiped Tui and La, seperate and as one. The North had a greater population of Tui devotees, perhaps part of the reason that the Moon had spared Yue’s life as an infant. (Spirits knew enough Southern mothers had begged for intervention to save their babies, and received no answer…)

La favoured the South, turbulent oceans and fathomless depths and the people who dared them, benders or no benders. Yue had been a friend, and even if she had given her life to restore the moon, Katara liked to think that some of that friendship was still there, in the soft moonlight that felt like the echo of a hug. Like sitting wrapped in soft furs together, complaining about men and misogyny and braiding each other’s hair.

_Arnook’s expression, one morning when they’d overslept and hadn’t had time to fix their hair from the experiments of the previous night, leading to Yue showing up to breakfast with Southern hair loops and intricate braid, and Katara’s hair in a messy attempt at Yue’s style (which took two maids to accomplish), had been priceless._

Katara was used to figuring out a bending move from the slightest hints, from memorising the movements and the way a bender stood. She was even more used to gritting her teeth and smiling at men who thought they were better than her, to get what she needed. No-one had to tell Katara how much work went into learning to bend.

The son of an Earth Kingdom merchant, whose grandfather had been a Waterbender, showing off how much better he was at the stances than the little Water Tribe girl who claimed the ocean as her birthright. The colony children who played Waterbender vs Fire Nation, copying what they had read on scrolls plundered from Katara’s home and kept as trophies for children to look at. Zuko and his men, who scoffed at her pitiful attempts to fight them to free Aang.

The pirates who laughed at the very idea of selling her a piece of her stolen heritage. Who had captured her when she reclaimed it anyway, desperate for something to learn from. They’d regretted that, and they way they threatened her, when Katara froze them all up to the neck in ice and sunk their ship with them on it.

* * *

Katara had arrived at the Northern Water Tribe filled with hope, She’d been certain that she’d finally have a teacher, someone who could show her how to bend properly. Anyone, so that she would no longer have to struggle alone.

Instead, she got Pakku, who refused to teach her because she wasn’t a boy. Pakku, who refused even when she fought him for longer than most of the Northern Tribe’s “best” Benders lasted. She got Yugoda, who was kind, but just as set as Pakku and Arnook in her insistence that girls only learned Healing.

So Katara learned to heal. She learned to sense how the body’s water moved with it’s Chi, how body and Chi responded to a person’s spiritual and mental state, and what effect that had. To Heal was a great duty, as Yugoda said, but that was not all of what Katara learned in the healing huts.

She had spent her afternoons sitting with Yue, watching the bending lessons. Specifically, watching how their Chi flowed and the stances they used. She tried to get Aang to show off what he learned, at first, but everything came so naturally to him, and he spent most of his time in the coveted lessons playing with Momo.

Katara loved Aang as her friend and little brother, but in that moment she’d been so _**angry**_ with him that she couldn’t even speak. Better to find another way than to have to constantly bite her tongue or start shouting at the one person she’d thought would understand. Aang was the Last Airbender; of all people, she'd expected him to sympathise with culture lost, and the desire to get it back.

Katara had practiced, flying Appa outside the city walls late at night. She’d practiced with Arctic Fox-Wolves, who yipped and snatched fish when she turned ice to water and pulled it up, guiding it through the air. She’d done the same for an orphaned polar-bear-gosling, before bringing it back to it’s flock on an ice-slide, and getting out of there even faster.

The polar-bear-gosling kept coming back, and brought friends who loved ice-sliding almost as much as the penguin-seals back home. Katara indulged them, keeping a careful eye on their adult minder, who watched from a distance but didn’t attack. She considered her participatory audience a precaution, in case she was followed, or if any of the Northern men tried to make good on their threats to ‘teach Katara her place’.

Katara had never been ignorant of the dangers she faced, especially while travelling, and had grown up with the determination that no-one would lay unwanted hands on her twice.

Pakku had beaten her once, but Katara was no stranger to baby steps while she built up her strength. She had a plan, and her first target. It was time.

* * *

Sangok was one of Pakku’s students, one of the weaker, less confident ones. Katara smiled at him as she walked past, and he followed her down an alley. His smile was genuine, unlike Hahn’s leering at anything with breasts, but Katara didn’t care.

His smile vanished when Katara froze him to a wall with one smooth motion. “Teach me, or I’ll add a gag and leave you here.”

Katara had learned a lot just from watching Pakku as he fought her - far more than the old bat-goat had ever intended to teach, she was sure.

Sangok took several minutes to break out of the ice, and retaliated with the same move. Katara turned ice back to water in seconds, making sure to bend it out of her clothing as she did. Sangok went on the offensive, and Katara deflected each attack before retaliating with the same move. It was a good fight.

Then she swept him into the nearest canal - the healing huts were within shouting distance, he’d be fine - and went looking for her next victim.

Katara was no one for half-measures. She would learn to Waterbend - combat and healing both - no matter what it took.


	2. Pirates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, there was no-one to save Katara from the Pirates.  
> Good thing she wasn't in that habit of needing or wanting to be saved...

Yue had been upset, though she hid it well, when they met to watch the benders.

Upset enough that Katara turned away from the bending lesson going on beneath their window (she was mostly sensing how the chi moved, anyway) and focussed on her friend. “Yue, what’s wrong?”

Katara wasn’t from the Northern Tribe. She held no reverence for Chief Arnook, or his warriors. Yue could tell her things that she would never dare mention to anyone who owed her father loyalty. Yue glanced toward the door, and the guards beyond, and Katara sealed it with a thin, transparent layer of ice. Un-noticeable – at least until the guards tried to walk through it – but enough to muffle their conversation.

Yue smiled faintly in anticipation and gratitude. “It’s Hahn.”

As usual. Honestly, what had Arnook been thinking, betrothing Yue to that ass? Not only was he a horrible potential husband, but his blind arrogance made him a terrible chief-to-be! Katara tried not to let her anger show on her face as she patted Yue’s hand. “What did he do this time?”

The Northern Princess sighed, “Nothing I can take to my father. Just… talking about how he looks forward to the wedding night, bragging about how I don’t need to worry, he has plenty of experience and won’t need my input while I focus on making babies, how when he’s Chief blah blah blah… you get the idea.”

Katara did. The sly insinuations or idle boasting that was always brushed off as a “just a joke, don’t be so sensitive!”. The comments that were “out of context, you understand why we can’t do anything about it”… always an excuse why women who sought help against the men who knew exactly what they were doing were ignored or brushed aside until they reappeared as a body in a shallow grave.

She said none of this to Yue, but smiled reassuringly. “Leave it with me, and enjoy your time away from him. If worst comes to worst, we’ll sneak you onboard Appa when we leave.”

Hahn was predictable, and while Katara needed practice against and from other benders, she wasn’t so foolish as to ignore the danger that highly-trained non-benders could be. She shouldn’t allow herself to get rusty…

* * *

Katara’s experience with the dangers posed by non-benders had been… nebulous.

She’d seen her father’s skill in combat; knew that someone’s lack of bending didn’t make them an easy target. It was just that Katara had never fought them before.

She’d known the danger inherent in stealing from pirates. Of course she had, the Southern Tribe had experienced enough raids to know the dangers, to know how quickly they could go from mock-friendly to lethal. It was why she didn’t protest Aang spending far more than he should on that wretched bison whistle.

But they had a Waterbending Scroll.

They had a piece of Katara’s stolen heritage, doubtless stolen from someone else, and refused to part with it as soon as they saw her wearing blue. Katara had been helpless too many times, and while the Northern Tribe wouldn’t reject the Avatar for training, Katara had heard enough of her grandmother’s grumblings, and early memories of her own Tribe’s gender roles to be wary of her own acceptance. Perhaps they made exceptions for Waterbending girls… or perhaps they didn’t.

Katara needed to learn, and for that, she needed the scroll.

The thick Parka’s concealed a lot, and by good fortune, Katara hadn’t left hers on Appa. (High altitudes were cold, and if Air Nomads had adapted to be resistant to wind-chill, or could bend the air around them to be less cold, Katara preferred to have her cold-weather wear handy.) As soon as the so-called merchants were distracted, Katara slipped the scroll into the folds of wool and fur, and followed Aang and Sokka out.

More used to open-sea pirates, Katara had anticipated being well away on Appa before the pirates caught up to them. She hadn’t expected them to have a river-boat, or to track her so quickly. She gave them a good fight, and once they had her tied up, they still had to chip three men and the captain free of ice before they could make sail.

Perhaps it was a blessing that Sokka and Aang were far enough away to sleep through the whole thing.

If there was one mixed blessing common to the male half of the species, it was that they could never resist boasting.

Katara hadn’t been so young, before the pirates decided that the Southern Water Tribe wasn’t worth the time and trouble to raid anymore, that she didn’t understand the warning tales. This bunch had certainly made enough crude remarks to get the point across. (Off to the side of the boat, the waves swelled.)

Of course, that would require the pirates to stop trying to intimidate her by listing all the things they were planning to do to her. Katara had grown up with Fire Nation raids; she could tell the difference between ‘ _the human body doesn’t work that way_ ’,and ‘ _truth_ ’ and ‘ _designed to intimidate’_. She squinted at the still-open scroll that the captain held, studying the figures and trying to read the directions.

Insignificant child blah blah dare to steal something something now we have you whatever. If they were anything but a bunch of murderous, raiding scum, Katara might have recommended a career in the theatre. As it was, she thought they would do better at the bottom of the ocean.

By the time the Pirates stopped talking and turned to see what effect they were having, Katara had mostly untied herself. Shoving the ropes off her hands, she turned a burst of sea spray into a dozen sharp ice shards, guiding them to slash through the ropes on her feet. A few of the younger pirates – clearly the brains of the crew – backed away hastily, then collided with the railing, realised that they had nowhere to run, and turned a satisfying shade of pale. Paler, anyway.

Katara shifted into the proper stance and brought a wave up, flooding the deck, and froze each pirate up to their chins. She unfroze the captain’s hands, just enough to retrieve the Waterbending scroll. “Do you have more of these?”

She brought up another wave. The Pirate Captain reverted to his merchant persona. “Yes, many! I’ll show you!”

Did he really think she was fool enough to fall for that? She re-froze his hands. “No, I’ll find them myself.”

She did, just in time, re-emerging to see that the ship was headed for a large waterfall. Well, then.

Katara created a small iceberg in their path, leaping over the side of the pirate ship with the precious scrolls in her arms moments before the impact made the deck shudder, emphasised by the sound of splintering wood. She ran across the water, unhindered by the fierce current or fear of sinking, not stopping until she reached the shoreline. Turning back, she listened to the screams as the ship spun wildly, crashing broadside into a rock formation as it sank ever lower.

There were a lot of rocks in the lead-up to the drop. Katara felt safe in leaving the Pirates’ fate up to the spirits. She set off back along the riverside, shading her eyes and spotting a white speck in the sky. Katara increased her pace, the last thing she wanted was for Aang to insist that the pirates had a right to life and try to save them.

Aang was twelve. Katara would spare his innocence as long as she could.

The pirates were still screaming, alternating between pain and terror, and frequently trailing off into wet gurgles. It was about time they experienced what their past victims had felt.

Reaching a stretch of sandy beach, Katara unfurled the scrolls to dry. There was an Earthbending one, and one on Ancient Firebending techniques, but most were Waterbending, the majority bearing the distinctive sigil of the Southern Water Tribe.

Katara still needed a Master, as much as Aang did, but by the time they reached the Northern Tribe, at least she would know enough to impress one.

* * *

Hahn liked to frequent an eating house, somewhere the young men of the Northern Tribe gathered to socialise while their sisters were engaged in pesky chores that the men shouldn't be bothered with.

Katara ambushed him on the way, a water-whip dragging him into an alley before he could shout. She pinned him with cold eyes, one hand stroking the polar bear-gosling that his mother had left with Katara last night. “I hear you’ve been indulging in disrespectful boasting.”

Hahn gulped, though he didn’t speak. A fine time to learn how to shut up, after all the things he’d been saying about her and Sokka and even Aang. Yue wasn’t the only reason this jerk was owed a beating. Katara smiled, bending a fish up from the ice for the polar bear-gosling and watching Hahn turn pale as it ate. Good.

Katara’s water-whip turned into a spear of ice, the rest solidifying into a shield like the bone and hide ones her people had once used. Hahn looked poised to run, but the only way out of the alley was past Katara. “I thought you might like to see what I did to the last people who did that in front of me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd originally planned to leave this as a one-shot, but there were a few other ideas sparked by reviews, and then MuffinLance updated.  
> Plan on another chapter or two, roughly occurring after Salvage updates.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I have a lot of thoughts about the Northern Water Tribe basically leaving the Southern Tribe out to dry...  
> I have even more thoughts about how the only reason Pakku trained Katara was because he realised that she was Kanna's grandchild, and that's never really addressed, either.  
> In Salvage, Katara never gets her necklace back from Zuko, so a few things go differently.


End file.
